mens as well as patent models, and he involved the 

 Office in agriculture '08 (see also the Smithsonian 

 Institution and the Department of Agriculture). 

 The Patent Office moved to the Department of the 

 Interior in 1849 and to Commerce in 1925. 



NOAA — Origins 



The largest basic research program in the De- 

 partment of Commerce is that of the National 

 Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 

 (NOAA). One of NOAA's current programs began 

 in 1807, when the Congress authorized a general 

 and comprehensive survey of the coast, employ- 

 ing the latest scientific methods brought to this 

 country by Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler, a Swiss 

 geodesist. He was equipped with a scientific li- 

 brary, some fine instruments, and a set of French 

 standard weights and measures. '09 Initially, man- 

 agement of the Coast Survey was directly under 

 the President, but the Treasury Department ac- 

 tually handled it for him and became the official 

 sponsor. Field work didn't begin until 1816 and 

 was interrupted from 1818 to 1832, when the 

 Navy managed the work. Hassler insisted on 

 doing the survey scientifically with astronomical 

 observations, as opposed to the Navy's reliance 

 on chronometers for the determination of longi- 

 tude."" Alexander Dallas Bache took over from 

 Hassler in 1843, and continued to use the scientif- 

 ic methods."' The Coast Survey became the 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1871 when Con- 

 gress assigned it responsibility for the geodetic 

 control of the interior. It was transferred to 

 Commerce in 1965 as part of the Environmental 

 Science Services Administration (ESSA). Its 

 name was again changed to the National Ocean 

 Survey when ESSA became part of NOAA in 

 1970 "2 



Another activity involved in basic research that 

 recently became part of the Office of Ocean Engi- 

 neering is the National Data Buoy Development 

 Project, which originated in the Coast Guard in 

 1967. The goal of the project is to develop a sys- 

 tem to provide continuous observations of the 

 marine environment, taking data for all "agencies 

 involved in understanding, predicting, or control- 

 ling the marine environment.""-* 



i'«lbid.. pp, 47. 110-11 I. 



I'^lbiil.p. 29. 



ii'Mbid., pp. tl-3.1, ."S^-.M; Popkin. Roy. The EnvironmenUil 

 Science Services Administralion {Pr-.ieger: New York, 1967), pp. 

 19- 2X. 



iiiDuprcc.pp. 5.'5-56 



'^-Annual Report of the Secretary of Commerce! Bicentcnni;il 

 KditionXGPO: Washington, D.C., 1976). p. 101. 

 "Mbid.. p. 112. 



336 COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS AND HISTORICAL TRENDS 



Another part of NOAA which came from ESSA 

 was the Weather Service. From 1890 to 1970 this 

 had been the Weather Bureau and functioned 

 within the Department of Agriculture until 1940, 

 when it was transferred to Commerce. Prior to 

 the formation of the Weather Bureau, other Fed- 

 eral agencies had collected meteorological data, 

 notably the Land Office beginning in 1817, and 

 later the Smithsonian and the Army Signal Serv- 

 ice. However, the greatest need for research in 

 meteorology was felt after World War I, when the 

 rapid growth in aviation created the need for 

 collection of weather information. Radio enor- 

 mously increased our ability to collect and dis- 

 seminate weather data. Airmass analysis opened a 

 new dimension in U. S. meteorology in 1934. This 

 was the result of basic discoveries made earlier in 

 Europe as a result of World War I experience, but 

 not recognized here until that time. The techniques 

 were not officially adopted for another 4 years. "4 

 The National Marine Fisheries Service, another 

 office administered by NOAA, has origins going 

 back to 1871. In that year Smithsonian Assistant 

 Secretary Spencer Baird recommended to the 

 Congress that it take steps to prevent undue deple- 

 tion of food fishes of the seacoasts and lakes of the 

 United States. He was made the first Commission^ 

 er of Fish and Fisheries, and almost immediately 

 he began research at Woods Hole, Mass., on 

 striped bass, bluefish, and other species. The first 

 Federal fishery research laboratory was construct- 

 ed there in 1884-1885.""^ Baird and his associates 

 from the Smithsonian did basic research in marine 

 biology and conducted applied research in support 

 of the fishing industry. The Commission became 

 independent in 1888 and remained so until it was 

 placed in the newly created Department of Com- 

 merce and Labor in 1903. From 1939 to 1970 it 

 functioned under various titles in the Department 

 of the Interior, and then it became the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service of NOAA. The Fishery 

 Research Laboratory was joined at Woods Hole in 

 1888 by the Marine Biological Laboratory and in 

 1930-31 by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Insti- 

 tution; since then Woods Hole has become a world 

 famous center for ocean science. These latter two 

 institutions are privately operated with strong 

 university connections, but a great deal of their 

 research is funded by various agencies of the Gov- 

 ernment. 



The Fisheries Service did basic research on the 

 Alaska red salmon that enabled us to negotiate 



"''Ibid., pp. 105-108; Popkin. op. cit., p. 86; communication 

 from NOAA to NSB staff, October 1977. 



"^Ibid., p. 109; WotnJs Hole Oceanographic Institution. 

 "Questions and Answers" (WHOl: Woods Hole, Mass.. 1%9). 

 p. 2. 



